The West Virginia State Legislature passed a bill earlier this month that seeks to mandate steps and procedures to reduce the amount of scrap metal theft taking place in the state.
An earlier version of the bill was vetoed by West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin. A spokesman for the Governor’s office said the earlier bill first appeared in the West Virginia Regular Session, which ended in March. That bill was vetoed by Manchin had some aspects that appeared to violate the 4th Amendment over unreasonable search and seizure of property. The earlier bill, not only allowed law enforcement officials to enter a scrap yard’s property in search of stolen goods, but investigators from private companies could also enter a yard to look for material that was stolen.
However, a new bill, which was quickly passed Tuesday and is expected to be signed into law within the next few weeks, corrects this step, while reinforcing penalties and mandate steps when purchasing different types of metal.
The new scrap metals bill stipulates that a purchaser of scrap metal is required to keep purchase records and have them available for law enforcement officials, including public utility and railroad investigators. If the scrap metal dealer does not wish to keep his records available at their business, the bill stipulates that records must be filed with local law enforcement officials, including the local detachment of the State Police, the municipal police chief or county sheriff.
The bill increases fines and penalties that include suspension of any business registration certificate for scrap metal purchasers.